Once again the idea of repealing Oregon’s income tax kicker is being chatted up in Salem. That’s no surprise: The 2019 Legislature may face as much as a $1 billion revenue shortfall, and raising taxes is far easier than cutting programs or bringing reason to the state’s underfunded Public Employees Retirement System.
Ditching the kicker does not solve the problem, and while changes to it might make sense, elimination of the program does not. It is one of the only ways Oregonians have of trying to keep state spending under control.
